ANGOLA: Aid flights suspended after crash 1998.12.28

ANGOLA: Aid flights suspended after crash

JOHANNESBURG, 28 December (IRIN) - WFP aid flights carrying
food to thousands of displaced people in Angola's central
highlands have been suspended until officials get more
information on what caused a UN transport plane carrying
14 people to crash near the town of Huambo on Saturday.

A WFP spokeswoman told IRIN that food delivery flights
to tens of thousands of displaced people sheltering
in the city were being called off at least until Wednesday
as a precautionary measure until more was known about
the crash. The aid flights had only resumed last week
because of heavy fighting in the area between government
forces and the UNITA opposition movement.

Within hours of the crash, the government in a radio
broadcast monitored by the BBC, blamed UNITA for shooting
down the aircraft, a Hercules C-130 carrying UN observers
to the town of Saurimo in northeast Angola. The UN
observer mission in Luanda called for an immediate
48-hour ceasefire so that rescue teams could search
for any survivors and establish the cause of the crash.
However, attempts to find the wreckage were being hampered
by continued fighting in the area.

Analysts said that even if the fighting abated, the
search and rescue mission would be made difficult by
heavy rains and the presence of landmines in the crash
zone, believed to be near Vila Nova, some 25 km outside
Huambo.

The crash raised fresh concerns for tens of thousands
of displaced people sheltering in Huambo, and in the
town of Kuito, in Bie province 120 km to the northeast,
where media reports cited fresh shelling on Friday
after a brief lull last week. Kuito airport has been
closed since an Angolan government plane was shot down
two weeks ago.

Huambo and Bie provinces have been at the centre of
fierce fighting between UNITA and government forces
since early this month marking the collapse of the
UN-brokered Lusaka Protocol peace accord signed in
1994.